


Nine things about being brought back from the dead

by crazygreatwords (SamWithACrown)



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Mat coping with the whole being dead thing, Safiya and Joey are mentioned, Steph and Nikita are there too, set between s3 and s4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21887266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamWithACrown/pseuds/crazygreatwords
Summary: Mat tries to adjust to his life back home after being brought back from the dead
Relationships: Matthew Patrick/Stephanie Patrick
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	Nine things about being brought back from the dead

**Author's Note:**

> List and title from [hgk477 on tumblr](https://hgk477.tumblr.com/post/186538355044/nine-things-about-being-brought-back-from-the-dead)
> 
> This doesn't really have a solid structure or logic sense because it was simply an exercise to try to get me to write again, I still like it tho

_1\. You will be cold_

And Mat was. Cold in the pure sense of the word, "absence of warmth". He could normally manage just fine, but the second he made the smallest human contact, even accidentally, he realized how cold he was, how much his body missed the warmth, how he longed for it. If anyone noticed how longer he indulged in hugs and other human contact, no one mentioned it.

_2\. You will wake up screaming, you all do._

He had started sleeping in another room after the first nights of waking up Steph. She was exhausted, still recovering from all the sleepless nights trying to find him while he was in Everlock. While for him it felt like only a night, she had spent close to one month without her husband. And now that he was back, Mat didn't want to make her worry even more. 

_3\. Your entire body will throb, the pain will eventually subside; being brought back is never a painless task._

Every time he stood up after sitting down for too long, every time he did some movement too quick, he could feel all of his body crack and hurt, especially where the Strongman broke his bones. Magic brought him back, but Mat wondered if it really did fix his body all the way, or if half of his skeleton was still smashed in small fragments trying to put themselves together. He wondered how an x-ray would look, but there's no way he could explain it to the doctors. Yes, all of his bones were smashed recently, but don't worry, he got better. Maybe no x-ray then.

_4\. Do not get up immediately, you will be nauseous and your body will need time to readjust to this realm._

Steph had started to keep an eye on him. He he had tried to tell her that he was fine, don't worry, but he didn't sound very credible when the next thing he did was stand up and immediately fall down towards the floor, where he would have gotten a very bad bruise if his wife hadn't promptly grabbed him. Okay, maybe he wasn't completely fine, but who could help with symptoms as "gravity was suddenly too much", "my soul forgot how to control my body for a second", or "the magic keeping the fragments of my bones together stopped working for a instant"?

_5\. Ask for more blankets, you will feel very cold._

He had at least two in all the places he usually stayed. Two on the sofa, two near the pc, two in the stream room. It was no rare sight to see him walk around with one draped over his shoulders, like some sort of kitten-printed ghost. He had lost count of how many times he almost tripped over Skip, the cat playing with the fringes of the blankets. 

_6\. You will not remember how you died, do not ask._

It's not that he didn't remember. He did. Maybe too much, even. He could remember every hit, every snap, every scream, both his and of the others. But one time, while talking to Nikita, he found himself looking at her completely dumbfounded. "I died?"  
She looked at him like he was joking "uhmm, you sure did?"  
...  
"Wait. You're serious?"  
Mat looked away. There's no way that he died right? He was right there in Nikita's home, sitting with her at her kitchen table, alive and well. How can he have died?  
A intense ache hit his body all at once as all the memories of that night hit him as once.  
He found himself almost on the table, only his hand clutching the wood holding him up, Nikita at his side looking at him with a rare worried look. As soon as she saw he was fine, she got up.  
"Bitch! Warn a girl next time! I thought you were gonna die again on my floor!"  
He pulled himself up, "I'm sorry, I blacked out for a second"

_7\. Do not ask the practitioner how they performed the ritual, this is considered bad luck and you will not last long._

I mean, he didn't really need to ask. He knew in broad lines what had happened. They had found the coins, and then using that and the box they brought him back.  
...  
Okay, maybe he was a bit curious about the details. But it's not that he really could ask. Nikita wasn't the best person to ask for detailed information (she did tell him about an Harp tho, and he did remember seeing it in the Lounge between one task and the other), and the two who actually did the spell were one missing and the other dead. He had looked up various combinations of searches, but the problem with magic was that you never knew what was facts and what was fiction. It's not like he even knew what to look up specifically.

_8\. Your loved ones will be ecstatic to have you back, consider this a blessing. ___

__Everyone was so happy when he had come back. It looked like only his presence there had fixed everything. He had missed them, and they were a comforting sight between all the police interrogations and other problems that being a missing person for a month caused. Steph had been the first one to arrive when they found him and Nikita, but most of his family had arrived during the following week. Luckily they all had accepted the lie that he didn't remember anything (he and Nikita had decided that was the best thing to do, there was no way that anyone would believe them), but once they left and it was only him and Steph, he only needed one look from her to know that she didn't believe him. "I'll tell you everything," he promised her, "but not now"__

_9\. Thank the practitioner and let them be on their way, if they do not look you in the eye consider this a bad omen._  


He felt like he never really thanked them. Yes, sure, he did say "thank you", but they were in the middle of a night full of death and puzzles, so it was rushed and quick. And now he had no way to thank them. He had toyed more than once with the idea of looking for a way to repay the favor, to bring *them* back to the real world like they had done with him, but he was a man of science, magic was completely out of his element. That said, he was a man of science, too curious for his own good. That's how he found himself looking online (just to look, nothing serious). A link caught his attention. The cursor hesitated over it. He had already found out that online resources about supernatural things were rarely reliable and mostly fiction. But there was no harm in trying right? The preview looked like a Tumblr with a dark theme, with a lot of lists on it. Well, even if it was only fiction, there was no harm in wasting a couple minutes reading a short list right? [He clicked the link.](https://hgk477.tumblr.com/post/186538355044/nine-things-about-being-brought-back-from-the-dead)

**Author's Note:**

> Again, the list is from [hgk477 on tumblr](https://hgk477.tumblr.com/post/186538355044/nine-things-about-being-brought-back-from-the-dead)
> 
> Big thanks to themoonlightreveals to answering the call when I asked for someone to force me to write :P
> 
> As usual, if you find any errors please tell me
> 
> I'm still working on the second part of Fallen King, but I might be overthinking a scene so I don't know when I'll finish it. Hopefully before season 5
> 
> EDIT: it took me 8 months to realize that a whole chunck of fic was missing, I love that everyone that read was just "this is probably how it's meant to be"


End file.
